Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Saddle of Venison, Spiced
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the venison in warm water and dry it with a clean cloth.
Cut the bacon into ½-inch thick slices, remove the skin, and cut it into wedge-shaped pieces 1½ inches long, then make incisions in the venison and press the bacon pieces into the cuts.
Let the venison sit in the pickle for 6 days.
Cook
After 6 days, remove the venison, dry it off, and dredge it with flour.
In a Dutch oven, heat the butter and brown the venison on both sides quickly.
Add hot water as needed and baste often with the gravy.
Cover and cook slowly for 2½ hours.
When done, stir in ½ pint of hot water into the gravy and let it boil for a few minutes, stirring well.
Serve
Serve with stewed carrots, turnips, mashed potatoes, and jelly.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Flour + turniptop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,874 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turnip + potatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together562 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Saddle of venison
- Lean meat that becomes tender through long, slow, covered cooking.
- Fat bacon
- Adds fat and moisture to the lean venison and flavors it from within.
- Flour
- Dredging helps the surface brown and thickens the gravy.
- Fresh butter
- Fat for browning the venison and adds rich flavor to the pan.
The step that matters
Browning the venison quickly before covered cooking. Quick searing over high heat builds browned, flavorful crust through the Maillard reaction, which the slow covered cooking then cannot add. Basting keeps the surface moist during the long cook.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, flour, butter, carrot, turnip, potato):
- Lemonfits better
- Limefits better
- Red currantfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, flour, butter, carrot, turnip, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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